Iv come across ebony gear, is that the way to go? There is daedra that is heavier but better, right?
Is ebony the best to enchant?

Not to many spoilers please.
Oh, and how does armor value work, is it just a % off the damage taken that "disapears"?

Your armor rating is the percentile value of the damage that is reduced when you get hit.

The quality of the gear you are enchanting does not matter in this game, only the quality of the soul you are using. You can put an uber-enchantment onto a rusty iron bow if you wished so long as you have a grand soul available.

As for ebony being better than Daedric, equipped heavy armor has its weight reduced by 50% at Expert rank in the Heavy Armor skill, and by 100% at Master rank. Heavy Armor is also ridiculously fast to level, so I really don't think you need to worry about armor weight if you are consistently finding ebony and daedric gear about the game.

I think you should base it on looks. My archer was perfectly happy with a leather cuirass and dwarven greaves for a very long time. Just cuz they looked so good together. The daedric helm is barely wearable for my male melee characters. All the daedric gear is just ugly to me. A daedric short sword on the other hand, looks pretty awesome. Ebony looks sweet, but don't count out Perfect Madness gear.

For raising heavy armor, i should let monsters and such hit me, right?
At the moment i dont think i have that high heavy armor skill.
What i ment with putting good enchantment on good item is that it wouldnt be the best/optimal to put it on a bad base item.

I kinda go on looks with the armor, ebony armor doesnt look all that good, i play mainly in first person, so it doesnt matter all that much.. But i like steel curiass, i think its called, better.

How does vendor inventory work in this game? They get better items as the character levels up? Or could i buy ebony gear from a certain vendor at the start of the game?

And what about storing things in chests? If i leave some items in a warrior guild chest, will it stay there if i leave it there through the game?

some items that merchants carry are level based. but stores will not carry ebony stuff. i am not sure when ebony starts to appear, level 15 or 20. when they do appear, you should over time get several complete sets. so just store them if you plan on enchanting them because you may change your mind on what enchantments you want.

Turn the difficulty slider down to 0%, don a full set of heavy armor, find a mudcrab, and let him hit you a couple hundred times. The difficulty slider only affects the player-actor damage ratio, nothing else, so don't worry about it stunting your skill progression. At 0%, the player deals 6X damage and actors deal 1/6 damage.



As mpls Big Daddy said, wear what you like. Once you pass level 25, you won't really need to worry about having the best equipment, anyway.



Lots of chests and containers in this game respawn, meaning if you have anything in there that belongs to you, it will be cleared out if you ignore it for too long. To be safe, I would suggest only using player house containers for storage, because I can guarantee none of those respawn.

i notice sacks that contain five food items don't respawn so they could be used as storage. but to be safe, put something cheap and check back 3 or 5 game days later.

I dont have a house. Perhaps someone can give a small spoiler and tell of a good house to buy?

I like the Bruma house personally, lots of storage for your money, the Skingrad house is the best vanilla home, but costs over 50000 with the upgrades.

Ok, you can spoil a little more 8) . How do i go about buying a house?

Go to the town's castle, Speak to the Count or Countess. You may need to use speechcraft or bribery, they won't sell you a house unless their disposition towards you is high enough.

it varies. the house in anvil cost 5,000 completely furnished but it is part of a quest. the one skingrad., you need to see the butler at the castle. sometimes he dies before you can buy the house. the others, go to the castle and talk to the count or countess.

For a quick easy place to store stuff:

Grain sacks. All open-topped grain sacks are safe storage in this game. I use the three sacks outside of Palonyria's shop in the Imperial Market District. Until I can afford a home.

One point about the armor that hasn't come out yet. The Daedric armor isn't just heavier than Ebony, it's more durable. The Daedric Cuirass has 2700 points of health to give up before it's broken (at which point it gives zero defense) and an Ebony one has 1900.

And a shirt enchanted with a Transcendant Sigil Stone can provide more defense than either, with infinite durability because it can't be damaged. Getting a higher proportion of your defense from magic makes a lot of sense with these game mechanics, so dress for looks, and enchant for defense.

There is no such equivalence for weapons. You can't take a non-weapon and enchant it into one, so you have to worry about health of the base weapon when you enchant one. The Fine Steel swords look better than the Ebony or Daedric (IMO) but just don't last in battle. If the damage is coming mainly from enchantments then the durability is the main factor you need to consider.

it doesn't feel right to me to use clothing as armor. sometimes equipment does break during battle, and then yikes. i think enchanted clothing should be damaged like armor is.

Well, the magical shielding is separate from the material shielding, which is the part that gets damaged. Clothing has no defense until it's enchanted, so it has nothing to lose. You can put the same enchantment on armor, and again, it won't diminish, even though the armor loses its health.

You're capped at 85% of the physical damage being absorbed by armor or shield spells, but you can wear items totalling more so that you have defense in reserve. If you've got the whole 85 in enchantments, the state of your clothes or armor doesn't matter.

Another easy and cheap candidate for a house is the shack in the IC Waterfront. It only costs 2000 gold base, and an additional 2500 or so gold for all the furnishings. It is the cheapest home in the game, and very convenient being located right outside the Imperial City.

Yes, I've never understood why players don't go for this one as an early "first" home. You don't even need to buy all the furnishings, if you only need it as a place to crash and store stuff. Just buy the "Storage" upgrade, which adds three safe containers.

In short - NO. Go for the high-end gear, Daedric, but if you like the looks of Ebony, you can always get the Umbra gear, which is by far the strongest weapon by DMG in game, and armor has a great defence rating, cant really remember if its any greater than Daedric though.

What character you wish to role play should determine which armour you seek to employ. If you are going to play a tank without the uber-Goodness trait, then you should have the best protection you can get your soft bits behind. Enchant it to make sure your soft bits stay on the inside. If you have the uber_Goodness trait, then you may not want to have anything to do with the forces of Oblivion, so you would chose not to wear Daedric armour. Then you may want to ensure you have the best non Daedric armour to cover your tank. Ebony would be this. You may like the golden hue of the Dwermer armour, or the dark depths of the Orcish.

If you did not want to be a tank, you may be more a light armour person, so Glass would be the best covering. You may like the feel of leather, having a fetish for the stuff. You could use the armour leather, or just find the softer more fashionable leather clothing and enchant it. You may like the prettiness of the shiny Elven covering.

Your armour is part of you. You should think on how your character would want to be covered and how this should be enchanted. Your armour should work for your play style. Do you want your tank to be under too light cover, would you like your stealthy player clanking about the dark? Think on this.

The WoodGnome

Heck...easier still is to do the summon armor glitch to get top level Daedric armor with zero weight. :hubbahubba:

this chap offers sound advise.

just wear what looks good... i fare fine in leather gear whatever level I am.

Same for weapons.. Iron bow is the best lookin' bow and I never use anything else.